BREAKING SURF
| Online Dating: Heaven, Hell, and Places In-Between |
| How to Avoid Incriminating Yourself, in 11 Easy Steps |
| Finding Your Seat in the Sky |
| Canadian Slander |
| Meet Chimps of Gombe |
| Leeds Castle |
| Disposable Camera Photo Contest Can Lead to Permanent Exhibit |
| CBC's 120Seconds |
| A Fistful of Frazetta |
| The Doors of Perception Are Open to You |
| Netsurfer Recommendations |
| Everyone Who's Anyone in the Book Biz |
| The Last 1,000 Years of Science |
| New Ice Age Imminent? |
| Digging up the Past of the Southeastern US |
| The Science of Cooking |
| Ghostzilla, the Camouflage Web Browser |
| Tangling Web Pages |
| BOOK REVIEWS |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| Contact and Subscription Information |
| Credits |
BREAKING SURF
Consumers need to get smarter about assessing the real worth of Web sites. Two recent studies have the fodder to help, if you're willing to do some serious reading. The first of these is an international study by Consumers International and Consumer WebWatch. In its 46 pages (PDF version), the report walks us through the questionnaire that prompted the data, the sites studied, and the findings. The report concludes that consumers are at risk from misleading and inaccurate information. If you think that's too simple and obvious, look a little closer. The report offers useful tips for consumers (p. 13) such as use multiple sources, check the background, and consider risks, reliability and bias. Businesses would do well to review the suggestions particularly aimed at them as would governments. Disturbingly, many sites still don't have a properly developed privacy policy and many fail to indicate their commercial links or provide details about the quality, timeliness, authority, and sources of the information they offer. Some findings are indeed well-intentioned overkill, but most are pretty solid.Consumers International: http://www.consumersinternational.org/documents_asp/news_display.asp?id=162&categoryID=677&langid=1
PDF version: http://www.consumersinternational.org/publications/ViewADocument.asp?ID=320&CatID=434
Two detailed studies of how consumers and experts rank finance and health sites conclude that consumers judge a site mainly by its looks whereas experts are more concerned with bias and information sources. The hefty studies, undertaken by Stanford Persuasive Laboratory, Consumer WebWatch, and Sliced Bread Design (a credible Web designer despite the whimsical name), illuminate the superficial way we consumers trust a site. Even if the reasons users prefer some sites to others differ markedly from those of experts in a given field, the overall site rankings at least fall in the same ball park. Both groups choose similar groups of top-ranked health sites although specific placements differ. In finance, however, one site consumers judged highly is found near the bottom of the experts' rankings. The reports, available in PDF and HTML, aren't particularly daunting reads and provide considerable detail on the sites studied, the study methodology, and the results. Consumers can learn a few tricks from the experts on how to see beyond surface appeal. Web designers will probably find useful nuggets here as well.
http://www.consumerwebwatch.org/news/index.html
MovieLink: Hollywood Tries Renting Movie Files Online
MovieLink is a major Hollywood effort to enter the online movie rental business. The project is backed by the cream of the studio crop: MGM; Paramount; Sony Pictures; Universal; and Warner Bros. The MovieLink Web site opened this week with a limited selection of about 200 movies to test out the concept. Legal questions are already being raised, not least of which is the question of monopoly and unfair competition against other independent online movie streaming services. Meanwhile, the movies cost from $3 to $5 and the service requires broadband. The site is only available to US residents and only supports Windows and the Internet Explorer browser, which is sure to incur the ridicule of the tech-savvy crowd that would likely be the early adopters for such a service. MovieLink will be testing the service and technology for the next 90 days. CNET has the background, Wired a mini-review of the service, and Slashdot the discussion.Movielink: http://www.movielink.com/
CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1023-965194.html
Wired: http://wired.com/news/business/0,1367,56323,00.html
Slashdot: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/11/11/128200
China Party Congress Chooses New Leaders
By about the time we go to press, the China Party Congress will have wound up its historic meeting. The congress will choose a new generation of leaders for the world's most populous country, and so the rest of the world is watching the proceedings closely. The BBC has extensive coverage. In China, such coverage is not obtained without problems, and an article in Salon discusses the restrictions journalists must work under while covering the congress. On the one hand, China welcomes the reporters; on the other hand, it censors their broadcasts. An opinion piece in Red Herring puts across the touchy and related issue that American companies that helped to build the Chinese Internet are at least partly complicit in online censorship. Politicians and American stockholders are beginning to notice the issue. You'll find lots of discussion - and flaming - on the talk.politics.china newsgroup.BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/asia_pacific/2002/china_party_congress/
Salon: http://salon.com/tech/wire/2002/11/11/china/index.html
Red Herring: http://www.herring.com/insider/2002/11/firewall110802.html
Europe Plans to Crack Down on Online Hate
Are national borders meaningful online? As part of the European Convention on Cybercrime, the Council of Europe has proposed legislation that would criminalize Web sites with hate speech as well as links to such sites. The measure defines hate speech as "any written material, any image or any other representation of ideas or theories, which advocates, promotes or incites hatred, discrimination or violence, against any individual or group of individuals, based on race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin, as well as religion if used as pretext for any of these factors." Such speech, no matter how awful, is protected in the US by the First Amendment, and we wonder whether European authorities would investigate or charge Americans who ran such sites. And would Europe police access to such sites through national filtering technologies? Given that in the US Yahoo could not be forced to block access to Nazi and Holocaust denial sites from French citizens, it seems unlikely that this European move will work as intended. All we see happening is that the US will become the new home for European hate groups and their Web sites. Wired has more.http://wired.com/news/business/0,1367,56294,00.html
The Technology of Weapons Inspection
The task of the weapons inspectors who will have to go into Iraq to monitor that country's compliance with UN resolutions is dependant to a great extent on cutting-edge technology. Sophisticated bio and radiation sensors, encrypted communications, remote camera gear - all play a part in keeping an eye on Iraq's nuclear, chemical, and biological arms efforts. Beyond that, sophisticated databases will have to keep track of more mundane things like sales invoices and shipping records to track supplies that might go into making weapons. This San Jose Mercury News article gives a broad non-technical overview of these issues, which should give you some idea of the magnitude and sophistication behind modern weapons inspection efforts.http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/local/4499147.htm
Microsoft Memo Reveals Open Source Strategy
An internal Microsoft memo from their Linux Strategic Review (Berlin, Sept. 2002) reveals that the folks in Redmond, Wash. are taking open source seriously as a threat to their hegemony. Eric Raymond offers his take on the document, then presents the memo - with commentary, of course. Microsoft's pitching its Shared Source vision as an alternative to the increasingly popular open-source initiatives spearheaded by the Linux crowd, and the pitch doesn't seem to be working very well for them. Microsoft plans to limit criticism of open source and Linux while hoping to develop and eventually win an argument that total cost of ownership is less for Microsoft products under the Shared Source flag. If nothing else, this little item provides a glimpse into the innards of Goliath.http://opensource.org/halloween/halloween7.php
Kevin Mitnick's Missing Chapter Freed Online
Celebrated hacker ex-con Kevin Mitnick will be permitted to revisit the online world Jan. 21, 2003 after about eight years away from computers. During his long dry spell, he wrote a book - but his publisher, Wiley, has removed the first chapter prior to publication. While representatives from Wiley offer no explanation for the move, Mitnick was pleased to hear that the cut chapter somehow materialized on, ironically, the Net. Much of the missing chapter details Mitnick's pre-existing relationship with a New York Times reporter who portrayed Mitnick as an online terrorist. Wired has a brief look, with links to the missing chapter and many other matters Mitnick.http://wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,56187,00.html
If you've ever wondered how casinos keep things honest, take a gander at the jaw-dropping surveillance center at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The 1,900 cameras and fancy visual displays at the swank resort would do a military base or telecom network operations center proud. The high-tech security system is just the tip of the iceberg, however. Vegas is where the wired rubber hits the road, so to speak: a rich, demanding proving ground and market for computer networks, surveillance systems, and displays. This Popular Science article looks at, among a few other sights, Sin City's interconnected slot machines and the huge, networked jackpots they pay out. Casinos are an obvious magnet for crooks and rings of cheaters work the blackjack tables with the aid of miniature video cameras, wireless transmitters, watch pagers, and computers. The article also covers how Vegas operators hope to wheedle their gambling experience into your home.
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/computers/article/0,12543,385529-1,00.html
Wardriving and Mapping Manhattan
Marcos Lara spent a summer driving around Manhattan in a Sentra beater. Maybe a lot of folks do, but Lara was on a mission. He was wardriving, mapping wireless access points with the NetStumbler software on his laptop. He did this for more than purely quirky inquisitiveness; he helped form a group promoting 802.11b wireless access in Manhattan. He found that an infrastructure of over 12,000 open access points is already in place, but the nodes aren't officially open to the public. He's thinking that if the wireless network broadcasters can just plug the security holes and connect the dots in the already deployed networks, theoretically everybody travelling through Manhattan could be a Wi-Fi roamer. It's not as though this just came out of the blue. Sprint and other providers are looking at Wi-Fi roaming deployment as well. But Lara has a cool blog and they don't. Wired has more.Lara: http://www.swerdloff.com/wireless/
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,56197,00.html
The Leonids Are Coming! The Leonids Are Coming!
If you haven't ever seen the Leonid meteor shower - produced by remnants of the comet Tempel-Tuttle - get out on Nov. 19 and witness what promises to be an unusually spectacular show. Space.com has all the resources you'll need to prepare for the display, including the ability to map the shower at your location. The site also offers great facts about the shower and its history. Coincidentally, the display is going to take place during a blue moon. Sky and Telescope has an excellent piece of historical detective work to tell you what that often metaphorical phrase actually means.Space.com: http://www.space.com/leonids/
Sky and Telescope: http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/moon/article_127_1.asp
Spam Wars: The Numbers behind the Business
Getting information about the actual economics of spam is usually quite tough, since the spammers are quite secretive about their business. Nevertheless, this week, the Wall Street Journal quotes actual numbers from an actual spammer. They profile Laura Betterly, who runs a spam company called Data Resource Consulting out of Florida. While she avoids sending spams of porn and con jobs, she does send out a lot of e-mail, most of which is probably unsolicited. She claims that her mailing list derives largely from legit sources: users who signed up to receive e-mail on various sites, typically as a byproduct of getting some other service. The article provides the commercial response to one spam selling, of all things, anti-spam software: "81 orders came through from 3.5 million messages, a 0.0023% response rate." This translates to a commission of $1,555 for the spam company. The company continues in business despite ISP anti-spam rules by staying under their radar in e-mail volume and actually responding to unsubscribe requests. This is worthwhile reading.http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,SB1037138679220447148,00.html
P2P Pioneers: Where Are They Now?
The former Scour team is selling peer-to-peer (P2P) technology to entertainment companies. Ian Clarke, who just released an updated though still barely usable version of Freenet, is setting up a company to create cool software. Napster co-founder Sean Parker is starting a company to make software to automatically keep your Outlook address book up to date. The first round of P2P pioneers is moving on, this time more focused on business than on cool software. Parker's company, Plaxo, in particular seems to be getting some venture capital attention, closing a recent $2-million investment. CNET has an update on the people, Wired on the Plaxo business idea. Plaxo's email address maintenance software is available for download.Plaxo: http://www.plaxo.com/
CNET: http://news.com.com/2100-1023-965351.html
Wired: http://wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,56322,00.html
New Top Level Domains: ICANN's Plan
Stuart Lynn, president of domain name governance body ICANN, has published a plan for the rollout of further new top-level domain names (TLDs). He looked at the experience gained from deploying the last batch of TLDs, which included extensions such as .biz and .info, and is recommending that the organization keep learning by creating three more. He does not specify the names or charters of the three new TLDs. In general, Lynn sees a difference between the experience of the new TLDs with specific sponsors and those without. Apparently, the process of setting up a registry associated with a specific sponsor, for example the .museum TLD, is much easier than something generic like .biz. Lynn's paper is long and dense, but of interest to those who keep an eye on domain name issues.http://www.icann.org/committees/ntepptf/new-gtld-action-plan-18oct02.htm
Sports Markup Language Created
A consortium of major publishers has agreed on a global XML standard for the interchange of sports data. SportsML allows for the exchange of sports scores, schedules, standings, and statistics for a wide variety of competitions. The standard is so new that the SportsML Web site still has several broken links, but you can get all the essential documentation in a .zip file accessible through the DTD/Downloads link. The standard is open and extensible, and is likely to be quickly adopted by the many amateur sports sites out there. At least, it will be once the word gets out that the standard exists. We've done our part.http://www.sportsml.com/
WayPath Project Hopes to Log Blogs
"Sherman, set the WayPath Project to 1776." Wait, that was the Wayback Machine. So, what's the WayPath Project? As near as we can tell, it's a customized spider for crawling blogs. It appears to be an effort to link related blog content within a metablog database, which could be a good thing - but we doubt it. As the WayPathers note themselves, writing styles differ, vocabularies differ, and there are many other variables involved, as well. This makes tuning in relevance more than a little difficult. Still, it should be an interesting project to follow.http://www.waypath.com/
GameBlast Opens Doors to Online Gamers
Online gaming has a new destination, called GameBlast. It's part of AtomShockwave, which promises gamers significant advances over any of the free little games offered at their Shockwave.com. GameBlast subcriptions range from $5-$10/month and offer over 30 games and roughly 40 new puzzles each month. Unfortunately, much of the stuff requires Windows-only plug-ins, but if you use Windows and online gaming is your metier, this is a site you'll want to visit.GameBlast: http://gameblast.shockwave.com/gb/gbHome.jsp
Shockwave.om: http://www.shockwave.com/sw/games/
ONLINE CULTURE
Online Dating: Heaven, Hell, and Places In-Between
A week ago, Salon asked its readers to submit stories about online dating. Sure enough, the stories poured in and Salon found itself with an abundance of material, both good and bad, on the online dating scene. The paranoid among us will point to the stories of dating hell and urge you to stay away from the online dating scene. The optimists will point to the stories of true love found and urge you to give it a try. The horny ones will note that, according to one reader, "It's no stereotype that crazy women are great in bed." Hmmmm. Whatever the outcome, we have to admit the voyeuristic appeal of reading about other people's online dates is a true guilty pleasure, kind of like watching "Bachelorettes in Alaska" but with less guilt. The response to this feature was so good that Salon is turning it into a regular column.Salon: http://salon.com/mwt/col/heaven_hell/2002/11/11/heavhell1/index.html
"Bachelorettes in Alaska": http://www.fox.com/alaska/
How to Avoid Incriminating Yourself, in 11 Easy Steps
If you think you have the potential to be the CEO of the next Enron, listen up. Harvard Business School has revisited their tips for e-mail usage for managers. It's an odd mixture of the obvious and the asinine. For instance, don't send anything in e-mail that would be more effectively delivered in person. Duh. Most of these tips revolve around whether or not your communication could be used against you in court at a later date. They cancelled a few of their older rules, such as "Never print your e-mail" - which they eliminated because of the litigious nature of today's society. Honestly, it's a great rule for anyone who has a computer attached to his or her forearm and a T1 drop in every room. It's not so great for the have-nots, but then again, how many have-nots are there at Harvard Business School? According to the article, "It is simply impossible to proofread successfully on the computer screen." Who knew?http://hbsworkingknowledge.hbs.edu/pubitem.jhtml?id=3103&sid=0&
ONLINE TRAVEL
Comfort is more important than most care to admit, so airline passengers needn't feel embarrassed visiting SeatGURU.com. What airlines may hide, such as insufficient legroom, this site may expose. It provides the seating layouts of aircraft of five North American airlines - American, Continental, Delta, US Airways, and United. You get the nitty-gritty on seats: pitch (recline angles), width, and in some cases even upholstery, along with restroom and exit locations. Mouse over a diagram of, say, an American Airbus 300, and you get seat-specific tips such as "Seats 4 C,D,G are okay, there isn't quite as much legroom as other seats, but being in this mini-cabin sometime gets you better service." There are also mouseover tidbits on video, audio, and computer ports. These are details you're unlikely to get on the phone or at ticket counters. Site creator Matt Daimler credits airlines and frequent fliers for data and assessments, but it could use a few first-person accounts, if not a bulletin board. Most coach seats on most aircraft are described tersely as "average coach seats." Business-class seats are better documented, albeit without wine lists or menus.http://www.seatguru.com/
Fact: Canadians lead the world in per-capita binge drinking. Fact: Canadians drink almost half of their average 16 beers a day while on the job. Fact: NSD's editor is Canadian. Ergo: we can slide this review past him while he naps. The Truth about Canadians is part of teacher Shane Watson's personal Web site. Cruel but warm humor is a particularly keen talent of his, and this page is a hoot; unless of course you're Canadian (Fact: Canadians have no sense of humor, and Web pages like this make them violent enough to use a branding iron on anyone in the same room as them.) Each off-the-wall claim is scrupulously and hilariously sourced: "42 percent of the average Canadian's income comes from money stolen from the collection plate at church. (Source: UNICEF UNIWorld Report 1995)" One true fact about Canucks is they eat more doughnuts per capita than any other nationality. Click below to see Canada's plans to bomb Wyoming.
http://www.silverladder.com/literature/humor/canadians/ihate1.htm
Take a tour through this site for a truly interactive and unique experience in the wild world of the chimpanzees of Gombe National Park in Tanzania. This spectacular online showcase of photographs, video, and audio fell out of research by the Jane Goodall Institute Center for Primate Studies at the University of Minnesota. Meet several of the researchers and chimpanzees that make up this decades-old study. Take a virtual tour of Gombe National Park and experience the world of the chimpanzees and researchers. An activities section provides an entertaining way for young and old alike to learn more about these fascinating creatures. Discover more about how you can help the Center for Primate Studies continue and preserve its research for decades to come. Be sure to have QuickTime installed before visiting this site. The video footage is a must see.
http://www.discoverchimpanzees.org/home/home.php
Leeds Castle has been around since Norman times. It once belonged to Henry VIII, but now it is moving into the modern age with an award-winning Web site. The visitor information basics are covered well but like a medieval tapestry, the detail is the thing. You can check out the weather forecast for the castle before planning your visit to the 500 acres of grounds which include a labyrinth and formal greenhouses. The castle aviary houses over 100 species of endangered birds, the classical music concerts are accompanied with fireworks, and you can even book a hot-air balloon trip over the moat. Tour operators can download online travel packs in four languages and school-tour planners can sift through online material for workshops that focus on the Tudors, the aviary, and literature. Online visitors can sample the treasure trail, view a small collection of dog collars, or send a free e-card of the ballooning festival.
http://www.leeds-castle.com/
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Disposable Camera Photo Contest Can Lead to Permanent Exhibit
The Internet Professional Publishers Association (IPPA) invites all "with a love for new media, the process of art and design, or Kalamazoo, Michigan" to enter its inaugural and unusual photo contest. Forget about fancy lenses, filters, and other expensive accessories. Such trash is forbidden. This contest will cost you around $40: an entry fee of $29.95 (part of which covers the cost of film development) and one disposable camera. Your brand of throwaway is up to you. You don't get to see your submitted photos beforehand. You have to shoot an entire roll of film on one subject, then send the camera and a short explanatory essay to IPPA. Judges will choose photos that show "the most creative use of art, light, and imagination, among other things (plus that secret list of special spices)." Winners will have their photos featured in a permanent online exhibit. The contest ends Dec. 2, but the IPPA plans to hold quarterly design challenges similar in theme.http://www.ippa.org/
The 120Seconds project is a CBC Web site that strives to create a community of new media short excerpts on the Web. Its funky design includes some great sound effects but the real fun is in the freely donated items, most of which are bite-sized creations. They are loosely gathered into categories such as Real Life, Experiments, Giggles, Stories, and Beats. Everything has to be short, 120 seconds long ideally, perhaps to appeal to a modern, abbreviated attention span but most pieces prove that short can be sweet. If you're interested in submitting a work, you can find links to the tools you may need to create your own. Each section comes with a Tasty Top Five and they're well worth sampling, particularly if you've an interest in animation or innovative uses of the Internet for entertainment.
http://120seconds.com/index.cfm
Do you like fantasy art? You know - dragons, maidens, knights in shining armor, maidens slaying dragons to save their knights in shining armor.... Even better, the maidens and knights aren't always fully clothed, and the dragons rarely are. Eric Wadsworth's Unofficial Frank Frazetta Fantasy Art Gallery may not be the latest in Web design, but it has everything - high-quality images broken out by subject type or presented all at once via thumbnails. He's got pen and ink, sketches, paintings - anything Frazetta did seems to be fair game in this dubiously legal collection of several hundred images. The official Frazetta Art Gallery, on the other hand, offers prints for sale, as well as information on a new museum which opened in Pennsylvania to celebrate the artist's work.
Wadsworth: http://www.wadhome.org/frazetta/
Frazetta: http://www.frazettaartgallery.com/
The Doors of Perception Are Open to You
The Doors of Perception says it is "at the forefront of new thinking on design and innovation." The organization is based in Amsterdam and hosts a Doors of Perception conference every year or so. These are seemingly high-concept graphic, interface, and information design conferences for the digerati (makes us feel a bit nostalgic, really). The site is a collection of materials generated from the conferences as well as similar idea-space materials. The book review section is lengthy; a short paragraph of text generally serves to describe the book. There's an interesting weblog, articles, a link index, and selections of pithy inspirational messages that would inspire any number of dotcom survivors.http://www.doorsofperception.com/
BOOKS & E-ZINES
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Items our staff likes and you might too. Click on the image or title to order at a hefty discount from our affiliate Amazon.com, and send a few pennies our way as well.
For more selections, check out: Netsurfer Books: http://www.netsurf.com/nsb/ Netsurfer Library: http://www.netsurf.com/nsl/ |
The Prestige
Business: The Ultimate Resource
Night Watch
MySQL Cookbook
Dr. Ecco's Cyberpuzzles: 36 Puzzles for Hackers and Other Mathematical DetectivesEveryone Who's Anyone in the Book Biz
In July 2002, Gerard Jones started e-mailing 1,247 agents, editors, and publishers in the US, the UK, and Canada for their contact details while promoting his two novel submissions. He still hasn't hammered out a publishing deal for his immodestly billed "literary fiction masterpiece" or for his memoir of San Francisco during 1959-1990, but his list of everyone who is anyone in the publishing world is now comprehensive and informative reading for anyone who hopes to get a book published. His listings include e-mail and postal addresses, Web pages, and any further information provided by co-operative editors. Less forthcoming editors also end up immortalized on these pages, as Jones relishes engaging in witty rebuttals of their rejections and delights in exhibiting the responses from those who take themselves too seriously.http://www.everyonewhosanyone.com/
SURFING SCIENCE
The Last 1,000 Years of Science
Ideas. People. Events. Inventions. How to make sense of the last millenium of science? Thanks to the UK and its National Grid for Learning, you could start at Timelinescience, a site designed for teachers and students but also useful for anyone interested in scientific milestones and developments between 1000 and 2000. Each entry covers 50 or 100 years. We like the prose, especially the "Setting the scene" intro in each. The notes for years within each entry sometimes have links to further background and potential assignments. For instance, 1543 includes a paragraph about physician Andreas Vesalius and links to information about Galen, William Harvey, and others who shaped our knowledge of anatomy and circulation. Two activities for students are deciding who should get credit for figuring out circulation and comparing methods used by ancient Chinese and later Western scientists. We wish the timelines had more links like these, but the lack is understandable in light of the effort it would take to link the name of every scientist mentioned to another Timelinescience resource. Ah, well! It's nice to know schools are welcome to maintain local copies of the entire site.http://www.timelinescience.org/index.php
The oceans control the global climate as much as the atmosphere does. This article on potential climate changes by Robert Gagosian explains clearly how global warming could lead to a big chill in the North Atlantic. He suspects that ice sheets melted by global warming could desalinate the North Atlantic and ultimately trigger a drop of between five and ten degrees Fahrenheit in the US and Europe. The Gulf Stream current, currently powered by the sinking of hypersaline seawater in the North Atlantic, may consequently shrink or disappear, disrupting shipping lanes and air transportation and causing energy needs to soar. He estimates that these changes could happen within a decade and could persist for centuries. Ocean currents have effectively shut down before, a fact disclosed by ice-sheet records. The article uses several animated diagrams to illustrate how the ocean currents influence the worldwide climate.
http://www.whoi.edu/home/about/whatsnew_abruptclimate.html
Digging up the Past of the Southeastern US
The Southeast Archaeological Center site is an official US National Park Service Web site. Any student of history will find hours of vicarious thrills as they dig through the sediments of the past along with real life archaeologists. Of course, real life archaeology isn't always as exciting or dangerous as Indiana Jones's exploits, and the prize at the end of the adventure is more likely to be broken pottery and bones rather than golden amulets. Nonetheless, this is a thorough and well illustrated site that covers many aspects of US history in the southeast. Civil War buffs will be particularly fascinated by the studies of various battlefields and prison camps. This site is of great interest to the student of history, but is also loaded with information and resources for the professional archaeologist.http://www.cr.nps.gov/seac/
This Web site is the first installment of a Web-based project focusing on the science of everyday life. You'll develop a better understanding of the science of cooking and foods with a visit here, and that means more than cooking chemistry. For example, you'll learn about spices from around the world and how they can add punch to any recipe. Each section provides recipes, activities and general scientific facts behind the food under discussion. Webcasts are scheduled to begin in late November, and they will feature various food experts and culinary artists. Of particular interest for the fast approaching US holiday season is a featured segment on the holiday turkey. Food expert and author Harold McGee will be dishing up tips and tricks for your holiday feast. You're guaranteed to learn something new about the foods we ingest everyday.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/
SOFTWARE
Ghostzilla, the Camouflage Web Browser
If there were a category for best weasel software, surely Ghostzilla would win the prize. We recently recommended Scott Adams's latest book, "Dilbert and The Way of the Weasel", in which he defines the weasel zone as "a gigantic gray area between good moral behavior and outright felonious activities." This stealth browser is aimed squarely at those who brave the weasel zone by netsurfing while they should be working. A couple of mouse gestures bring up the Ghostzilla browser inside a window of whatever application you should be doing real work in. The text is rendered in light gray and all web pictures are blanked out until you pass a mouse over them. Your boss or co-workers passing by will have a hard time seeing just what you're up to when Ghostzilla is on your screen. Honestly, we're in awe at the ingenuity that went into the Ghostzilla weaselware concept. Truly, one must admire the crafty weasel. Speaking of which, it's Windows only.Ghostzilla: http://www.ghostzilla.com/
"Way of the Weasel": http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060518057/netsurferdigest
Tangle, a new software package, automatically creates links between Web pages based on how users move from one page to another. In some ways, Tangle resembles some of the automated interblog link generation tools that are cropping up in the blog community. This tool, in contrast, works with the aid of proxy servers, which are the central repositories of Tangle data between Web pages. It resembles the defunct and lamented ThirdVoice application that let you comment on Web sites with the aid of a browser plug-in. The potential for abuse of such a system is quite obvious - think link spam and legal threats - but the alpha code may interest hackers who are into distributed linking technology. Note that documentation is rather limited at the moment. Slashdot has a good discussion on the implication and history of such metaweb technology.
Tangle: http://tangle.sourceforge.net/
Slashdot: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/11/10/1858259